Their works tower over Rotterdam's harbor, the ninth largest in the world. The port handles about 30,000 ocean-going vessels each year -- that's about 80 ships a day, hauling a total of 420 million tons of cargo. You can appreciate the immensity of it all with a harbor tour. You'll see the sprawling Staatspark (marked by the Euromast tower); several innovative waterfront housing blocks; and one small section of the bustling port, with stacks upon stacks of containers and a forest of busy cranes.

But not everything in Rotterdam is postwar mod. One of the few well-preserved bits wasn't even originally part of Rotterdam -- it was the port for Delft. Historic Delfshaven is just a short subway ride away from Rotterdam's city center, but it's a world away from the 21st century. There's an idyllic canal pulled straight out of a Vermeer painting, with old boats, a cantilevered drawbridge, and even a windmill still churning away in the distance.

In the heart of the city is Rotterdam's oldest structure, St. Lawrence Church -- completed in 1525 and a rare survivor of the 1940 Nazi bombing campaign. The church's nondescript exterior belies its vast, pristine interior, which sports a huge organ. If you enter, be sure to look up to appreciate its roof, one that was clearly made by a city of shipbuilders -- it feels like you're huddled beneath an overturned boat.

Grotekerkplein, the "Great Church Square" in front of St. Lawrence Church, honors Rotterdam native Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) with a 17th-century statue, which also miraculously survived the bombing. A great humanist, Erasmus forged the notion of identifying as European -- seeing oneself as a citizen of the world and not tied to a single nationality. In many ways he's the intellectual forbearer of the
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. On the pedestal, in Dutch, is an excerpt from one of his most famous remarks: "The entire world is your fatherland."

Some dismiss modern Europe and its attempts at political union as a "failure." I'm not blind to the fact that Europe has its flaws and is grappling -- not always very well -- with some serious challenges of its own. But I love the Europe of today -- the one Erasmus foresaw -- and a visit to his hometown of Rotterdam, rising out of the ashes of war, is a chance to witness its stunning success.

We should be afraid of collective stupidity. What I am referring to is millions of people displaying a lack of intelligence, particularly in areas where humans have made intelligence breakthroughs in the past.

Think of common school subjects like reading, writingand arithmetic. We are collectively more intelligent in these areas today than centuries ago, but many of us are slipping back in time despite being surrounded by modern technology.

How is it happening? Artificial intelligence is replacing or competing with human intelligence. It’s called cognitive offloading. We are outsourcing part of our intelligence to technology. When this happens, our own intelligence atrophies. If this plays out over several generations, some foundational intelligence will be lost for most humans.

Bob High, Chief Technology Officer of IBM Watson, puts it this way: “Our tools tend to be most valuable when they're amplifying us, when they're extending our reach, when they're increasing our strength, when they're allowing us to do things that we can't do by ourselves as human beings.”

All of our accounts let you set up automatic payments. As long as your payment details remain valid, and you've added all your vehicles to your account with their licence plate numbers, you're covered for travel on CityLink and EastLink.

Rain is forecast for Monday, June 18, 2018 as a tropical disturbance moves into the state.

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Rain is forecast for Monday, June 18, 2018 as a tropical disturbance moves into the state.

Rain is forecast for Monday, June 18, 2018 as a tropical disturbance moves into the state.

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Tropical disturbance moving into Texas, bringing rain

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A tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico will finally reach Texas this week, bringing scattered showers and thunderstorms to the Houston area today through Thursday, meteorologists said.

Rainfall, which will move inland, will total as high as a projected 10 to 12 inches at Magnolia Bay, according to the National Weather Service. Many Houstonians prepared for the possibility of heavy rains over the weekend, but the weather is now expected to come later than originally forecast.